My feeds are full of pieces about the filibuster, Manchin and Sinema. Regular readers of the blog know that I dislike the Senate for a number of reasons, including the ability of drama queens to halt the proceedings and make it all about them rather than the legislation. A combination of DC brain, being high on one’s own supply, and the corruption of power, can lead some Senators to act willfully, capriciously and irrationally. Their acting out is amplified and enabled by a press machine that slavishly covered the tantrums of the last occupant of the oval office and is looking for more of the same.
All that said, the reason that Manchin and Sinema are getting the level of attention they’re getting right now is due to the hard work of organizers and voters in Georgia. Georgia is already working to pass bills that make it illegal to vote while black. Republicans are going to filibuster HR1 when it arrives at the Senate. Will the precious rules of the deliberative boy override the desire to have the media cover their every utterance? I wish I knew the answer to that question. But, like children who don’t get enough attention growing up, it’s hard to predict when these two (and others waiting in the wings) will act out.
Ocotillo
Frist?
Ocotillo
Wow, actually am first and can’t hang around as I have a meeting to join in a few……
Nice topic, look forward to discussion.
jeffreyw
Call 911! I just saw a frist and run!!
Major Major Major Major
Very true. This is a good problem to have!
Manchin obviously (to me) is going through the motions here and working his way towards reforming the filibuster in some way that lets them pass voting rights. Sinema… might be high on her own supply.
BC in Illinois
Roy Blunt — of the Blunt Lobbying Family — will not run for re-election in 2022.
It’s time for Missouri to read Stacy Abrams’s book, Our Time is Now and see if we can’t change our state the way that Stacy Abrams changed hers.
1. The prevailing winds can change in two years. 2022 may be a good year for Democrats.
2. If he can see the way to do it personally, I would work diligently for Jason Kander. In 2016, Joe Biden came to speak for Kander, at the Pageant in St. Louis. I was so fired up, that I went door-to-door for Kander. And I SUCK at going door to door.
germy
cain
@Ocotillo:
More importantly, you got #2. Congratulations. That’s where the shit begins, yo!
I think I trust Manchin more than I do Sinema. That whole boopty boop thing she did with her vote speaks to someone whose flair for the dramatic is ill timed. A lot of people were pissed off by that gesture. Manchin in comparison did a pretty good job and he’s already making noises about changing the filibuster.
I think making it hard to filibuster is not a bad idea. We know the GOP are lazy cowards and they don’t have the stamina to go up there and filibuster. I don’t think the filibuster was ever meant to stop a bill indefinitely the way it has been used these past 25 years.
Change it, and let’s get on withe John Lewis Voting Rights Act and secure our democracy, and lock out these assholes until they change their behavior.
BC in Illinois
@BC in Illinois:
Kander says that he wont be running in 2022.
cain
@germy:
If I was Jake I would be pretty insulted. Chuck Todd is a quack and deserves to have a show whose ratings should plummet like Trump’s coherence.
Bill in Section 147
I wonder if the more “focus on the filibuster” is intentional in order to not focus on the bill. The news should be, OMG they passed it! Relief!
I’ll admit to being a bit, “the owners of major media were actually very happy with the previous administration’s lack of ethics and focus on government does NOT work and more wealth for the wealthy stances.”
Baud
@Bill in Section 147:
Yes, I agree. Maybe we can get back to that when the bill is actually signed into law.
germy
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Sinema is definitely flaky, but she also had no demands for her vote, except for not endorsing the minimum wage.
mrmoshpotato
@cain: “Do I look like that goateed asshat to you? I’m from a different network that sucked Dump’s ass in 2016.”
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Yeah but she’s also spoken this year about the need to expand the filibuster.
Another Scott
I got word that the White House is going to have an event today, talking about CDC guidance for those who have been vaccinated, masking, how to interact with those who haven’t been vaccinated.
… gradually, and then suddenly.
Good things are happening, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
Keep on Working (3:23)
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@cain:
Norm Ornstein had some interesting suggestions re: how to fix/reform the filibuster. Were I not so lazy, I’d find a link
ETA: OK, got unlazy for a second. Now I gotta lie down and rest a bit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
not a huge fan of Chris Wallace, but that’s a question that needed to be asked. And I laughed reading it.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Josh Marshall is similarly optimistic, so I am attempting to maintain optimism too. Marshall yesterday after Manchin’s Sunday show rounds:
This gets lost in the weeds sometimes, but the evil of the modern form of the filibuster is that it lets the minority party kill legislation without a debate. That’s a natural advantage for Republicans because they’re the ones who oppose popular legislation, and the “email filibuster” lets them kill it without taking the heat. Changing that would be a huge advantage for Dems.
Marshall also noted that Machin talked up a HUGE infrastructure bill in the Axios interview and talked about paying for it with a corporate tax hike and rolling back Turnip’s tax breaks for the wealthy. Not quite Elizabeth Warren territory, but I’ll take it!
The one thing that seriously worries me about filibuster-philes like Manchinema & Co. is that we HAVE to stop all-out assault on voting rights. Pretty much everything depends on that, and the GOP knows it too, so I don’t see them budging. We’ll need a filibuster carve-out or something to make that work.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
From your keyboard to FSM’s earlike appendages.
ETA: Twentieth!
Elizabelle
@BC in Illinois: Thank you for reminding me about Stacey Abrams’ book. A copy was available at my library; placed a hold and will be reading it soon.
I agree. 2022 could be a very good year.
And, 2021 too. Governors’ races in Virginia (and New Jersey too, if memory serves; they’re always the canaries immediately after a presidential election).
Tractarian
My preferred version of filibuster reform:
Cloture may be invoked only if a group of senators representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. population agrees.
I mean, it makes more sense than the Jim Crow sh*t we’re currently stuck with.
jeffreyw
@cain: I’ll just view the “Chuck” as a subtle pushback for the insulting question he was asked.
SFAW
@Tractarian:
Interesting idea.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
A good point. But I can’t for the life of me think who she thought the audience was for the little thumbs-down dance. The imitating McCain notion doesn’t really explain it, because McCain rarely looked (on camera) like he was taking anything he did as less than an historic gesture (“an historic” to reflect McCain’s self-importance– in his own mind, he was always wearing a toga on the Senate floor)
Elizabelle
@Tractarian: I like that idea a lot. 60% of the population. It pains me how much representation the Dakotas and high plains states have.
Anything that points out, again and again, how much the Electoral College distorts our politics. And that is past time to drop it.
jonas
I trust Manchin and Sinema (esp. Sinema) are aware that w/o HR 1, *their own states* are basically planning on fucking with voting rights so that it will be close to impossible for them to be re-elected. Let’s hope self-preservation triumphs over their delicate fee-fees about “decorum” and “tradition.”
Matt McIrvin
I heard somewhere that Sinema was motivated by some kind of procedure argument–she claims she’s still for raising the minimum wage, she just doesn’t believe it’s legitimate to do it in this way. Which makes me think she’s still driven by delusions about how power works in the Senate, and what would be possible if it worked the way she wants it to work.
It’s also important to remember that she wasn’t the make-or-break vote on the minimum-wage increase.
Booger
@SFAW: WHY DO YOU HATE SQUARE STATES???
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, it’s funny how the filibuster actually prevents the very compromise its proponents claim to want.
As for optimism, well, I’m an optimist… we’ve also seen this show before.
Bluegirlfromwyo
If the Dems bring back the talking filibuster, that’s fine with me. Look at how Ron Johnson screwed up the reading of the ARP. By the time the GOP figured out what to do with an actual filibuster, we could have voting rights, infrastructure, and police reform bills passed.
Villago Delenda Est
Hence my nym.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle: The Senate should be reduced to the power of the House of Lords, while we’re at it.
Just Chuck
I’d rather Colorado didn’t get lumped in with the rest of Rectangula, thanks.
MattF
It’s more than a little peculiar that Republicans are aping their Lord and Master by taking up indolence and performative cowardice, but I’ll take it. Leaves a wide-open field for intelligence and hard work. I.e., such as Pelosi and Abrams.
Brachiator
@Bill in Section 147:
The bill is already getting a lot of positive news for how it might significantly reduce child poverty. As others have noted, when it is signed into law, it will be a really bigger deal.
But the positive analysis is already negating the GOP carping.
jeffreyw
I think I’ve been moderated. Comment delenda est
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Apparently Vt Jesus and his posturing on the minimum wage turned her off. She is not opposed to raising the minimum wage in theory from what I have read.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Did she specifically mention him? Someone said up thread that she was hung up on the procedural issue as a general matter.
Steeplejack
Well, I was WFB (working from bed) this morning, but this roused me to get up and get on the real computer.
Atticus Goldfinch has a very plausible explainer on Joe Manchin—h/t to Rich Gardner in the Biden “Shocker” thread last night—that I recommend highly. Some excerpts (although I recommend reading the whole thing):
Apologies if someone already stuck this in during the time it took me to put it together.
ETA: Goddamn blockquotes!
Baud
Voting rights bill will probably get a huge boost when the Supremes uphold Arizona’s voter suppression laws later this year.
Joe Falco
@Matt McIrvin: A political argument could be made that a stand-alone bill raising the minimum wage is more effective as a club against Republicans provided Sinema wasn’t the only D senator to say no to the amendment. Sinema doesn’t make that argument however* and her act with denying a minimum wage increase ammendment by doing a big thumbs down doesn’t make me think she believes that political argument privately. If she does believe, she needs someone on her staff to tell her to cut out the dumb theatrics.
*I wouldn’t have expected her to publicly admit to using a potential minimum wage stand-alone bill as a politically savvy move to damage Republicans either. It’s odd how some people (on both sides) will say they hate politicians acting politically and think they somehow should act between being a saint and an evil-vanquishing warrior.
Kirk Spencer
@SFAW: it would be able an amendment to the constitution, but I’ve long been a fan of making at least the members of the house if not both chambers proxy based. You represent x votes.
There are problems with the system, and a multitude of variations. And it’s all likely a pipe dream given the amendment change needed.
But still I ponder it.
BruceFromOhio
@cain:
This. And if it doesn’t have Senator Sherrod Brown in the story, any US Senate breaking news gets filtered, starting now.
Senate election news is a different story – Blunt out, Portman out, Ronnie the J making ‘should-I-stay-or-should-I-fuck-off’ fundraising noises, it’s making opportunities for Democrats and Independents, though without the ARP ‘no’ votes to hang around Trumpista and Christianista necks it’s gonna be a tough row to hoe. Red states love them some full frontal fascism.
raven
Attacking the black church was pivotal in the recent Senate wins here. If these fuckers think doing it again is a good idea have at it.
Joe Falco
@raven: “Why don’t Republicans believe Christians should vote?” is a question any Democrat should ask journalists and news shows that will listen.
Jinchi
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m sorry, but blaming Sinema’s move on “Vt Jesus”, is ridiculous. If she believes in raising the minimum wage, she should vote for it.
Fair Economist
@BC in Illinois: All the Senatorial retirements, most of which are unforced (Shelby will be 88 and Burr was insider trading, but otherwise you’d expect these guys to re-up) are very good for us, but the flip side is that with most of the somewhat sane leaving, we *really* can’t afford to ever lose the trifecta again.
@cain: Yeah, Manchin is playing centrist but he does work with us the large majority of the time, and most of his antics make sense as a way to improve his chances in one of the reddest states in the Union. Sinema is just being bizarre – I don’t understand her motivations.
joel hanes
these two (and others waiting in the wings)
Last I knew, Dianne Feinstein was on record as saying that she would not vote to kill the filibuster.
Stipulated, she’s less performative about it than “these two”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
What happens when the SCOTUS decides any federal voting rights bill we pass is unconstitutional? Could they? What recourse would we have then?
Fair Economist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sinema’s flourish would have been great in the right circumstances – voting against one of the many ridiculous GOP amendments, or against a bill to restrict women’s or GLBT rights. This just wasn’t it. If it was intended as a copy of McCain’s gesture it was all wrong – he was acting serious, like a Roman Emperor, and while it looks like grandstanding to be fair it might have been the most important vote of the decade.
Timill
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Pack the court. More in sorrow than in anger, of course…
Steeplejack
Is our Democrats learning? Yes!
schrodingers_cat
@Jinchi: From what I read, she did not want to raise the wage using reconciliation and was annoyed that BS forced a vote on it.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A great description.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
Surely you agree her theatrics while voting it down were ridiculous and counterproductive, right?
kindness
@joel hanes: I think DiFi’s age has finally gone to her mental capacity. She isn’t spry and it’s possible she is in a fog now. A lot of the rest of her term will depend on how her aides handle her and what her medication levels will be.
schrodingers_cat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They were not helpful but I also saw how the swarm of bros descended on her, her wardrobe choice including a not so expensive Lululemon bag. When they were 7 other Ds and all the Rs who voted against it.
Steeplejack
Lincoln Project getting some scrutiny. (Trigger warning: NYT.) “Inside the Lincoln Project’s Secrets, Side Deals and Scandals.”
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: IMO, that’s a coherent political position, that a minimum wage hike shouldn’t go through reconciliation. I don’t necessarily agree, but I can understand the argument. That said, I can’t imagine what she was thinking with that bit of theatrics on such an issue; it just seems dumb politically.
I also don’t know if Sanders’ play (making everyone take a vote on $15) backfired on him too or if it worked as planned. If it was intended to make all the Republicans look like heartless monsters, oops, eight Dems also voted no. But with Sanders, who knows? Maybe he wanted to get all $15 opponents on record, so mission accomplished. [shrug]
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
It wasn’t just bros, and it wasn’t just about the bag. (Is $160 “expensive”? Maybe, if you’re making minimum wage and/or having employment problems because of the pandemic.) It was about the optics. Why did she have to come up to the podium to cast her vote? And why did she need to bring her bag? She looked like she was just dropping something off before heading out to a play date. And the curtsy was frosting on the cake.
The other seven Dems managed to vote no without looking like an ass.
StringOnAStick
I didn’t see Sinema’s little dance and I’m betting on not the only one, so that alone isn’t likely to be as big an issue during her next campaign. The reality is that not that any people pay that close attention to politics in general or watch TV news, especially the younger generations. What matters is people’s lived experienced and results, and with the passage of this bill in feeling pretty good about our chances.
StringOnAStick
@Steeplejack: I’ll ding her more on the fact it was Lululemon, a Galtian company I refuse to shop at. Remember how their bags had (have?) “What would John Galt do” or some such Randian nonsense printed on them, so you can advertise the owners libertarian BS for him. Hard pass.
Josie
@Steeplejack:
$160.00 for a bag is expensive, and I am not working for minimum wage. I felt that whole scene was a poke in the eye to many of us. I was not amused.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: @Steeplejack: Her theatrics were unhelpful.
germy
Betty Cracker
@StringOnAStick: Gross! I didn’t know that. Will avoid — thanks for the tip!
schrodingers_cat
@StringOnAStick: It is overpriced for something that is not leather. I have never bought anything at Lululemon.
Steeplejack
@StringOnAStick, @Josie:
I don’t know squat about Lululemon or women’s bags in general. I had to hit the Google to get the info I did. I do know it wasn’t just left Twitter piling on poor Kyrsten.
Perhaps she can up her game in the next round of the minimum-wage battle.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of negative attention, are there any Nevada Dems here, and if so, wtf?
James E Powell
@Steeplejack:
This exactly. What it looked like was that she scorned the idea of raising the minimum wage.
And the flood of grief and excuses and paper thin defenses coming from her supporters shows that she realized afterwards that it was a stupid thing to do, but she doesn’t have enough class to just say, hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Srsly. I have a friend who lives in Las Vegas and likes that the state has turned blue, but this may be a shade too far. Waiting to hear from her.
evap
My question is whether a federal voting rights act will supersede the Georgia bill. It seems like voting is mostly a state thing, in that different states can have different rules on absentee ballots, etc. I worry that the GA bill will end up in the Supreme Court and they will rule in favor of the GOP.
Ksmiami
@StringOnAStick: if it wasn’t for lululemon… I dont know what I’d do. They singlehandedly made athleisure a legitimate clothing category to the cheers of busy moms everywhere
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@evap: IANAL but
Immanentize
@evap: The constitution makes it clear — both in Article one and amendments 14, 15 and 19 that although States have first crack at elections, Congress can make any law it feels necessary to protect federal elections (house, senate and president). Few states are so peevish that they are willing to spend twice as much money to have state elections on days different than federal elections. But many southern states did/do so to keep old Jim Crow breathing.
Patricia Kayden
Patricia Kayden
@cain: “Change it, and let’s get on withe John Lewis Voting Rights Act and secure our democracy”
Yep. Passing the Voting Rights Act is imperative. Otherwise, we can say bye bye to our democracy.
cain
I suspect because she’s a woman in cognitive decline that she’s probably reverting back to a period of time where Republicans and Democratic members went to the ball together and dance the waltz. Today, one party is wearing white hoods and doing the twist the other is dancing with themselves.
jl
Robert Penn Warren wrote a poem about a dilatory boy and a lost shoe.
Manchin seems more dilatory than deliberative, but if he continues to, in the end, allow good policy to pass (edit: at least the most important parts), then he is a problem that can be managed, I hope that keeps up.
I don’t know what’s going on with Sinema. I don’t understand what her antics at the the vote on the minimum wage were about.
Tractarian
@Kirk Spencer:
The Senate can make its own rules – even ones seemingly contradicting the founders’ intent, like requiring a supermajority or unanimous consent for regular business.
There’s no reason the Senate can’t change its own rules to provide that, for cloture purposes, each senator’s vote is weighted to the population of that senator’s state.
Someone will sue, but federal courts – even the Trumpist SCOTUS – would be unlikely to intervene. If the filibuster itself is constitutional (which no one doubts), then this reform is constitutional.
Tractarian
@jl:
No one seems to understand what her antics were about. Let me suggest: they weren’t about anything. She just forgot she was on camera, was fumbling with her bag, wanted to make her vote clear, and did something stupid.
Sinema has supported a minimum wage hike in the past and even after this, she said she was open to doing it in separate legislation.
StringOnAStick
@Ksmiami: Try Athleta instead, or Title Nine.
jl
@Tractarian: Doesn’t sound any more deliberative than Manchin.
Sebastian
@Betty Cracker:
Sinema, like Manchin, is part of the plan and spectacle. Biden (and Obama) are playing the GOP and the media.